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I also understood the Comcast/Netflix solution as Comcast including Netflix servers on their network directly, to cut down the congestion at the peering points. It's less about giving Netflix "equality," and more about optimizing the user experience for Comcast customers who consume Netflix.

The "trial" episode of CSI:Cyber was a regular CSI episode last year. Patricia Arquette's character "confused" a very life-like video stripper bot with non-sequitur, which made the bot's skin fall off to reveal metallic cyber bones. That was the best thing ever. Then I learned that they were going to make an actual show based on that sort of thing.

I think that the primary problem is the Windows reliance upon the name of a file to express that file's metadata. I realize that this has been the way of things for decades, but there are myriad ways to differentiate file types now. Modern filesystems have improved ways of storing and reading file metadata as well, without it having to impact the system's functionality.

The interesting thing with full "regular" usage of a Windows system, it is exceedingly rare to actually deal with the actual executable file. A typical user is going to use the menu system to access the executable. I'm a computery sort of person, and I find that the only time I make use explorer is when I need to migrate files from one solution to another, or when I have to stage something for a process I'm running. On a more normal basis, I access my downloads via the browser's download dialog. I access documents via the word processor's recent documents and/or Open dialog (which opens to the established landing place for documents). I access programs via the Start Menu, or Win+Q/Win+S, or Command+Space. Steam is my primary mode of running games, too - I use the UI instead of the shortcuts for the games that are installed.

I used to use the CLI a whole lot more. I guess I just got old, but mostly, it's that sort of "I'm not going to do more work than I really have to" curmudgeon sort of mentality. When I have to navigate to an executable, for instance, HxD, I will create a menu shortcut to it instead. It's just easier. In a lot of ways, the common usage metaphors are what keep users safe, too.

Free vs. less free depends on how you orient your view. From the perspective of a company or programmer, GPLv3 is more restrictive. From the perspective of the code being licensed (the software being set free), GPLv3 is far more free. The GPL is a conscious choice by the copyright holder to allow the written software to be free to take on a life of its own, as it lives within the sets of releases and forks that descend from that original GPL release.

From what I recall, there isn't any actual requirement to redistribute unless you are supplying a device or service that uses it. A company may use GNU/Linux internally, even modify it to suit their needs, but if that company doesn't sell equipment based upon their changes (or a SaaS solution), then they needn't worry about the implications of the GPL.

The question is for programming, but the blog discusses AP CS. There are differences there, which are fairly important.

If one were to teach another to program, then I'd stick with a language that is closer to English. This is a reason why PASCAL or BASIC was used - they are a lot more verbose in nature than C, Java, etc. I think Python should qualify as well, because you do want to impress upon the learner the importance of formatting.

For CS concepts, it might be better to start with a language that's closer to the concepts in CS. For this purpose, I'd say Logo. There's a direct feedback in Logo, and it starts really simple. I learned it in junior high school. From there, you can get crazier into the functional programming world and migrate to scheme or full blown lisp, which then translates rather well to automata, grammars, languages, etc.

WRT the last mile deal - it doesn't necessarily have to be at the federal level for regulation. The current state of affairs is primarily due to the leverage that the oligarchy has had upon local government. I imagine that a revolution at the municipal and state level would have to occur for the oligopoly to be broken.

Except that it doesn't explain why you should follow it. Most people seem to use "karma" (or "what comes around goes around") as a not-quite-as-supernatural-as-an-omnipotent-God reason for following the Golden Rule.

Wouldn't an indoctrination by society of an expectation for others to follow the rules be a suitable enough reason for one to follow that same rule?

In other words, society is perpetuated through an evolved sense of peace. To follow the "Golden Rule" is to benefit society. Society is not a God, it is a social construct with the power to self-enforce the rule, if need be.

I've been there. I know how that is, too. I wouldn't consider food that didn't make me feel stuffed, and would frequently eat to that point. I was uninterested in "healthy" materials. I like cheese a lot, which translates to me liking anything with cheese as a highlight.

I had to quit cold turkey. I had good reason to, considering that I got married and effectively removed myself from the environment where I had developed my habits. I dropped 40 pounds in roughly 6 months, and it was a healthy drop.

Now, I'm so accustomed to "healthy" food, that overly processed stuff just tastes terrible. Regular soda is overpoweringly sweet. Foods like frozen pizza, box mac & cheese, and fast food literally tastes abnormal. Once you get off the sugar, salt, and fat diet pushed by Kraft, Nestle, McDonald's/Wendy's/BK, Coca-Cola, Pepsico, etc, it becomes very difficult to get back on that diet. It shifts from satisfying your tummy and giving you that pleasant sleepy contentment to just tasting bad. The textures end up all wrong, and you'll find yourself wishing you'd gone for the "healthy" stuff.

It takes time, true. It isn't impossible, and it's remarkable how much your preference will change once you finally decide upon that change.

There is, however, a knee-jerk anti-Microsoft reaction here on Slashdot that rejects Windows Phone (particularly) out of hand. It has its merits. Really, it does.

I'll have to disagree with that one - this place used to be filled with M$ Haterade, but I've seen a lot more positive discussion since the antitrust years. I also think that there might be a considerable amount of astroturfing in play by Microsoft.

Slashdot isn't special in the knee-jerk reaction to Windows Phone, though. People pray to the Android / Apple altars and love their holy war, so they poo-poo the Windows Phone as the black sheep of the market.

Exchange is laughable, only people who care about certifications use it, and they are the laughing stock of people who actually use servers. There is a reason 99% of all servers are Unix based.

And Sharepoint has been a nightmare for everyone who's had to deal with it. I replace Sharepoint solutions with open source ones (often Drupal, as it performs easily 100x better on equivalent hardware, and can talk to an AD quite easily), and every customer is very satisfied.

Many business on the MS platform will go all-in with Exchange, primarily because of the level of integration with all products that MS offers. To call those that use Exchange "laughing stock," is essentially a troll.

Sharepoint offers a lot more than Drupal does to a business that employs actual developers, as well as those that understand how to leverage Sharepoint with Analysis Services and PowerPivot. There is also a lot more extensibility of workflows with less dev time than Drupal. Companies probably shouldn't bother with Sharepoint unless they actually care about those things, because it's essentially an expensive CMS without them.